[113] The island of Tamarin, or Sambouricon, which
lies about four leagues
to the north of Cracatoa,
may be easily mistaken for the latter,
having a hill of nearly the
same size and form, situated also near its
southern extremity.

[114] Query, Was this intention ever realized?
The work, supposing it to
have been published, was never
heard of or seen by the writer.—­E.

APPENDIX TO THE CIRCUMNAVIGATIONS.

No. I.

NARRATIVE OF THE HON. JOHN BYRON; BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE SHIPWRECK OF THE
WAGER; AND THE SUBSEQUENT ADVENTURES OF HER CREW.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

APPENDIX TO THE CIRCUMNAVIGATIONS.

No. I.

THE NARRATIVE OF THE HON. JOHN BYRON.

THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

As the greatest pain I feel in committing the following
sheets to the press, arises from an apprehension that
many of my readers will accuse me of egotism, I will
not incur that charge in my preface, by detaining them
with the reasons which have induced me, at this time,
to yield to the desire of my friends. It is equally
indifferent to the public to be told how it happened,
that nothing should have got the better of my indolence
and reluctance to comply with the same requests, for
the space of twenty years.

I will employ these few introductory pages merely
to shew what pretensions this work may have to the
notice of the world, after those publications which
have preceded it.

It is well known that the Wager, one of Lord Anson’s
squadron, was cast away upon a desolate island in
the South-seas. The subject of this book is a
relation of the extraordinary difficulties and hardships
through which, by the assistance of Divine Providence,
a small part of her crew escaped to their native land;
and a very small proportion of those made their way,
in a new and unheard-of manner, over a large and desert
tract of land, between the western mouth of Magellanic
Streight and the capital of Chili; a country scarce
to be paralleled in any part of the globe, in that
it affords neither fruits, grain, nor even roots proper
for the sustenance of man; and, what is still more
rare, the very sea, which yields a plentiful support
to many a barren coast, on this tempestuous and inhospitable
shore is found to be almost as barren as the land;
and it must be confessed, that to those who cannot
interest themselves with seeing human nature labouring,
from day to day, to preserve its existence under the
continual want of such real necessaries, as food and
shelter from the most rigorous climate, the following
sheets will afford but little entertainment.